The Caps’ first game of the South Florida Rookie Tournament is in the books. The Capitals rookies lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-6. To say the goalies (two for each side) played poorly would be an understatement.

Let’s take a look at the highlights via the Capitals’ and Lightning’ Twitter accounts.

Scoring was opened two minutes later when Travis Boyd received his first of two assists after forcing a turnover from the Lightning goaltender behind the net. He fed the puck to linemate Jakub Vrana who made no mistake about it.

Boyd broke the tie at 12:40 of the first period with a beautiful goal. Vrana fed Boyd in the slot, who made a slick toe-drag to get separation from the Lightning defender putting the puck in over the goaltender’s glove.

Following a switch in net for both teams at the 10 minute mark of the second (Adam Carlson replaced Vitek Vanecek for the Caps), the Lightning once again battled back to tie the game up on goals from 2016 first round pick Brett Howden and Erne.

The Capitals would once again regain the lead in the third period off a powerplay goal by Sanford. After some nice movement on the man advantage, Sanford was able to tap in a rebound right at the side of the net. Caps 2016 first round pick Lucas Johansen made the goal happen by throwing the puck toward the net from Ovechkin’s office.

The Lightning then scored three straight goals in the third to take a 7-5 lead. The last of which was scored following a poor breakout pass from Connor Hobbs and an ill-advised neutral zone pinch by Bowey.

The final goal of the game was scored following a nice feed from Boyd who hit Vrana streaking to the net. Riley Barber was able to put in the rebound to cut the deficit to one.

The Capitals top forwards, Sanford, Boyd, Vrana and Barber, all looked very good. Sanford scored two goals, and Boyd had a goal and two assists. On defense, Siegenthaler appeared to have a poor game while Bowey’s play was a bit up and down. No defenders made a big impact on the offense side of the rink. The Caps’ second game of the rookie tournament will be played tomorrow, September 18 at 6 p.m. against the host Florida Panthers.